Thinking, an Americas East team, has claimed the Pavlov VR Master League Season 5 championship title with unprecedented bragging rights as the first team to finish a complete season undefeated.
Teams began competing in season 5 on June 10 and The Pavlov VR Master League Autumn Championship kicked off October 12 with the Challenger Cup. Yesterday Thinking defeated the Robo Electric Kitten Team (REKT), the Pavlov VR Master League Season 4 champions, in a 3-0 victory.
In fact, Thinking managed to make it through the season untainted by loss.
What makes the undefeated status particularly impressive is the fact that Thinking is a newly formed team in the league.
“We were playing for a few different teams last season,” explains Charles McCarthy, also known as Lucky. “When season four ended, we all connected and left our teams to form this super team of committed, hard-working, dedicated players set on great teamwork and strategies.”
The players add that their “fearless leader” meatyone really pulls all the pieces together.
“He has a lot of experience in CS:GO, which is what this game is based on,” states McCarthy, explaining that a lot of the league maps are ports from CS:GO.
While it might be based on the popular multiplayer first person shooter from Hidden Path Entertainment and Valve Corporation, Pavlov developer davevillz created an immersive virtual environment. Pavlov now has a dedicated player-base boasting some of the most impressive numbers among competitive VR games.
Congratulations to Thinking for taking the Pavlov VRML Season 5 championship title!
Read more about Thinking’s team members below.
Charles McCarthy
- Gamer Tag: Lucky
- Age: 39
- Occupation: Trainer and Agent for UFC and MMA fighters and Gym Owner at Boca Raton
- Two sons, ages 10 and 12
- Wikipedia
Fun Fact: McCarthy is a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Black Belt and a retired UFC fighter who achieved world middleweight ranking of top ten before his retirement. His last fight was vs. Michael Bisping at the Belle Center in Montreal in front of the North American record of 22,000 fans. (Bisping went on after that fight to win the UFC Middle Weight World Championship.)
Quote: “After retiring from fighting, I was left a huge void needing to be filled. I was used to competing on the world stage for the last decade and I find the thrill of competing in VR to bring me a lot of that competitive energy back. It has been a great way to make like-minded friends and learn more about the technology.”
IXShadowXI
- Age: 17
- Occupation: Line Employee Waterway
- Hometown: St. Louis, Missouri
- Hobbies: High school hockey
Fun Fact: He began playing in December 2018, but had to take a three week hiatus in late January when he broke his wrist during a hockey game and was unable to play until he had a cast that allowed him to move his arm.
Quote: “I became interested in Pavlov competitively after about 50 hours of playing the game in pub lobbies. I got the website from someone in game who was talking about it and looked at the recruitment tab.”
James
- Gamer Tag: ezRocket, but he goes by Rocket
- Age: 27
- Occupation: Full-time student in IT in Germany, where he currently lives
- Full-time VR enthusiast and streamer
- Twitch
- YouTube
Fun Fact: James was picked up by VRATH, an EU team, in 2018. He was added to the DREAM Team roster with MattH for season 4.
Quote: “I was immediately hooked on to VR once I experienced it for myself. I could envision the potential applications in gaming as well as in other industries and knew it was quite the game changer from that point onwards and hoped to see its full potential one day.”
Matt H.
- Age: 20
- Gamer Tag: MattH
- Occupation:
Fun Fact: Matt is a 3rd year Undergraduate at Durham University reading Natural Sciences (Major in Chemistry / Minors in Physics and Geology)
Quote: “I came to Pavlov after having achieved the rank of ‘The Global Elite’ Twice in Counter Strike Global Offensive, which I think has heavily contributed to making me the player I am now.”
Meatyone
- Age: 32
- Biologist / engineer in biotech
- Other hobbies: MMA, books, politics
- From Maryland
Fun Fact: Meatyone started in TTG, which became Mafia. During Pavlov season 4, Orca began playing with them and the team made it to semi-finals.
Quote: Pavlov is “probably the most competitive I have been in a video game in terms of real time.”
Stewart Minges
- Gamer Tag: Orca
- Age: 25
- Began playing Pavlov in October 2017
- Other hobbies: running, playing tennis, playing piano, composing music
- SoundCloud
Fun Fact: Minges joined the VR Master League in 2018 as part of Team Magma. After season 3 ended, he joined Mafia for season 4. It’s during that season when he met meatyone and they came over to Thinking together for season 5.
Quote: “Pavlov is the first game I’ve played competitively, and it has been a really great experience. It’s definitely changed the way I think about gaming, particularly FPS. I’m very grateful to have a chance to play with everyone on this team and learn together, and can’t wait for next season!”
Chewwy and Kraken
Very little is known about these two, but we’ll share the facts we were unable to uncover.
- They are brothers!
- Kraken also goes by “sabretoothkraken,” possibly to add an even greater level of intimidation.
- They’re from the United States.
- Both brothers served on DREAM Team for seasons 3 and 4.
Update:
After extensive searching, we were able to find the elusive brothers Chewwy (Jon) and Kraken (Dan). It appears that the fascinating duo have more in common than their DNA.
- Age: 32 (Chewwy) / 27 (Kraken)
- Both brothers live in Southeastern Pennsylvania, but Chewwy splits his time between a home there and Ocean City, NJ.
- Hobbies: Fishing, shooting, skeet, trap, sporting clays
- Both began playing Downpour Interactive’s Onward for a bit after they got their Oculus Rifts, but then switched to Pavlov after they found it.
Fun Fact: Kraken used to play a lot of arcade games growing up and Chewwy says his brother “would often use both guns in the shooting machines. Undoubtedly this skill translated to shooting from the hip in Pavlov VR.”
Quote:
Does VR have benefits beyond gaming (winning/losing)?
Chewwy: “I guess the largest benefits besides gaming are the obvious social benefits surrounding the community and friendships that grow with your teammates and other players in the community.”
